V50 Engine 2.0D : Engine cut off while driving

[louise Ruth]

I have owned my V50 auto from new it is now in its 8th year, I have it regularly serviced and it is kept in a garage.

About 8 weeks ago I was driving in the middle lane of the M25 with a lorry on the inside lane, suddenly all the warning lights came on and I lost power and steering. My daughter put her head out of the window to indicate to the lorry driver we were in trouble, fortunately we were on a bend and I managed to coast to the inside shoulder (since the steering was locked), but it was terrifying! The car went to volvos for investigation but they could not find anything wrong and said it was probably a 'one of'.

I picked up the car and drove it nervously - about 2 weeks later I was joining an A road on a bend when the same thing happened. All the warning lights came on and I had no power. Luckily I had a triangle and managed to place this on the bend to slow down speeding traffic. Volvo assist arrived and said there was something on the computer but they could not interpret so the car went back to Volvos.

One month later - volvos cant find anything, but when moving the car into their garage it did the same thing with the mechanic - lost power all warning lights on. Volvos say it was too short a time to be recorded on the computer and they have no idea what it is. I have not been given a courtesy car and have had to hire a car at great expense.

Having had three incidents, unless they find the fault I fear I may not be so lucky next time if I drive the car again.

I have noticed on various forums there are descriptions of loss of power and I wondered if anyone who has had this experience could contact me with their stories and what happened to resolve this fault?

[LizardOfBodom]

No stored faults to even point out to any direction? seem like a BS to me, maybe dealership just dont wanna deal with this issue? From what you describe it may be anything from CEM related issue to for example fuel pump cutoff (I had this unpleasant experience once) but in any case there would be series of codes stored in the memory.
Did your mechanic not find any faults when connecting computer?

also - when car "died" with all warning lights - when you try to re-start it anything happened? like starter was working and car wouldnt fire up or just nothing at all?

[Yobbo]

Originally Posted by louise Ruth

I have owned my V50 auto from new it is now in its 8th year, I have it regularly serviced and it is kept in a garage.

About 8 weeks ago I was driving in the middle lane of the M25 with a lorry on the inside lane, suddenly all the warning lights came on and I lost power and steering. My daughter put her head out of the window to indicate to the lorry driver we were in trouble, fortunately we were on a bend and I managed to coast to the inside shoulder (since the steering was locked), but it was terrifying! The car went to volvos for investigation but they could not find anything wrong and said it was probably a 'one of'.

I picked up the car and drove it nervously - about 2 weeks later I was joining an A road on a bend when the same thing happened. All the warning lights came on and I had no power. Luckily I had a triangle and managed to place this on the bend to slow down speeding traffic. Volvo assist arrived and said there was something on the computer but they could not interpret so the car went back to Volvos.

One month later - volvos cant find anything, but when moving the car into their garage it did the same thing with the mechanic - lost power all warning lights on. Volvos say it was too short a time to be recorded on the computer and they have no idea what it is. I have not been given a courtesy car and have had to hire a car at great expense.

Having had three incidents, unless they find the fault I fear I may not be so lucky next time if I drive the car again.

I have noticed on various forums there are descriptions of loss of power and I wondered if anyone who has had this experience could contact me with their stories and what happened to resolve this fault?

This sounds like a classic case of alternator dying, quite scary when you're at speed with a lorry up your arse!

[Tannaton]

It's not just that the alternator stops working (crappy Ford part on the 2.0D unfortunately...) it's that they go partially short circuit and put a heavy load on the battery.

This happened to ours last year, I put a fresh battery on and it started (just) but drove only for about 5 - 10 mins before the battery was dead. In that time I first got the Anti Skid warning, then brake failure, then loss of power steering, then engine died within about 30 seconds.

A harder short circuit may stop the engine immediately. The other thing to check are the battery leads and high power fuses.